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prague birthday
hi friends! i just took two full days off from doing anything except having birthday adventures, and it was quite a wise decision, really. by the time my head hit the pillow on night two, i was completely exhausted. the good kind, like you want. i spent it in prague this year and started the day with a growling stomach, so decided to finally give cantina a try. back when i was living in prague and totally broke, i would walk past this restaurant on the way home from going to the supermarket and wish that someday soon i could go here, as it has reputedly the best mexican cuisine in…
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so, you’re listing your space on airbnb
chances are that by now, you’ve definitely heard of the uber-popular apartment and room rental service, airbnb. (and if not, why?! you can find much nicer properties at a fraction of the price of a hotel) maybe you’re even considering dipping your toe in the hosting pool, or perhaps you are already a host! way to go, you! but during my extensive, exhaustive, and still on-going searching process to find the perfect rental for my mother and i in paris, i’ve noticed some serious airbnb crimes. alright, not so serious, but there are so many things that hosts do that lessen the chances someone will want to book with you.…
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where i’m from & why i left
before i got my ire up to buy a one-way ticket to the european continent in may 2012, i knew deep inside that living in seattle was not a permanent situation; at least not at the moment. i spent eight years trying to find my own path there while slowly discovering and eventually learning to love washington state’s largest city. staying was never exactly part of my plan, but it seemed like what i was resigned to. i took a job there after college in 2008 as a barista that i knew i could easily quit when my plans to live abroad started to materialize…. but the thing is, they…
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travel dreamin’ 2015
my goodness, the weather is dreary this week. two weeks ago i was in such a fantastic mood because of all the sunshine (even though it would always get right in my eyes during yoga), but now we’re back to the typical total spring weather: heavy wind, flash showers, cool temperatures. i woke up to a thin blanket of snow on the ground outside… some cruel april fool’s joke, no doubt. it’s helped to daydream about fairer, distinctly more french locales lately. i am so excited that my mom and i are planning on meeting up to celebrate her milestone birthday in style… in gay paris! not only am i…
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living without stuff, pt. III
this is the third in a series of posts titled living without stuff recording the personal progression of a girl in her mid-to-late twenties to living with very few belongings over a period of over two and a half years (and counting). if you’re just tuning in, i’m cynthia, a girl who i packed up only the most practical clothes i owned that could comfortably not so comfortably fit in a backpack when i work-stayed across scotland, eventually hopping over to the mainland to decide what i was going to do next (which unbeknownst to me at the time, was take the TEFL and settle in central europe). as i…
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local lore in south bohemia
near the samson fountain in české budějovice, where i currently live, there is a stone that is a little larger than the others and is oval shaped, whereas the others are square. it is also marked with a cross. legend has it that a traveler who steps on it will never find their way home again. there is also a variation that he who steps on it after 9pm will not find their way home again until morning. the stone symbolizes the straying from george of poděbrady (jiřího z poděbrad) of a ropemaker named fillip and eight others who were planning an uprising to overthrow the king. however, the plan…
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how TEFL changed my life
i never thought that i would feel supremely confident that i could hold down a job in many different countries on any continent, especially with the economy still in recovery. having a TEFL certificate gives me this freedom.i decided it was time to stop struggling to pay rent in expensive seattle and see the world while working– something that has always made sense to me. since i was in high school, i would think about how people work so they can go on vacations and stay in exotic locales. but my line of thinking was always just, “why don’t you work where you really want to be?” whether that’s in…
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in berlin: ritter schoko-welt
when it comes to my favorite german chocolate, i am a total ritter gal. some big are milka or lindt fans, but i’ve always been ritter all the way. i love how in the states you can buy the bars at trader joe’s, and of course here in central europe, you’ll find them in every store. my ritter tastes go through an evolution: i used to be all about the dark chocolate with whole hazelnuts until i discovered peppermint, which initially i thought would be kind of gross but turned out to be better than an andes mint (remember those?). so when i was most recently hangin’ in berlin last…
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třebíč, please
as i briefly touched upon the other day, the days before a holiday are tough. the anticipation. the getting through whatever stands in the way. when friday finally came and went, i gave a hallelujah and was excited about relaxing in a new town that’s been on my list for a little while– třebíč, recognized by UNESCO for having one of the most preserved old jewish towns in europe as well as a jewish cemetery that dates back to the 17th century. i was looking forward to a nice leisurely three hour train ride through the snowy highlands of the middle province of vysočina on the way to this western…
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exploring ostrava’s vítkovice
i was curious about passing through ostrava, czech republic’s “third” city, on my way to poland. it has long been known for being a polluted industrial and mining center of the country for most of the twentieth century, and also as a place that milan kundera writes about sometimes, for example, in his novel “the joke”. i can’t say this city has had the most shining reputation historically, but i’ve talked to some people about it who feel that ostrava has the potential to become a really hip city. it’s home to a steelworks and mining center called dolní vítkovice, located in the heart of the city, which is now…
